


At First Sight

by badly_knitted



Category: FAKE (Manga)
Genre: Attraction, Detectives, Developing Relationship, Drama, Falling In Love, Fate & Destiny, First Meetings, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26632216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Sometimes you can meet the person you’re destined to fall in love with when you least expect to.
Relationships: Dee Laytner/Randy "Ryo" MacLean
Kudos: 3





	At First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Jae's Monthly Drabble Challenge 175: Meeting.
> 
> **Setting:** After Vol. 7, referencing Vol. 1, Act 1.

You don’t expect to meet the love of your life on your first day in a new job; well, Ryo certainly didn’t. Maybe that was part of the reason he resisted Dee’s advances for so long, or maybe not; it was… complicated, to say the least.

Still, first days weren’t supposed to be about falling in love. They were for meeting the boss and being introduced to your new colleagues, finding your way around the workplace, learning the ropes, and hopefully making a reasonably good impression, and yet right from the start Ryo had been left feeling as if someone had just pulled the rug out from under him.

To start with, he’d walked in on his new boss chewing out one of the precinct’s other detectives, at which point the Chief had assigned him to work with said detective, who’d turned out to have no respect for personal space whatsoever. As if that wasn’t bad enough his first case with his new partner had been a particularly nasty homicide involving drug trafficking, and almost before he knew what he was doing he’d offered to become foster parent to the victim’s young son. To call the day ‘eventful’ was an understatement of epic proportions.

Dealing with so many major life changes all at once, it was perhaps not surprising that he quickly reached his limit. New job, new workplace, new boss, new work partner, new kid… That was more than enough for him to deal with. A new romantic relationship was out of the question, especially with the interested party being a man. There was no way Ryo was going to embark on exploring his sexuality, not with so much else going on in his life; he’d already been so overwhelmed with his new responsibilities his brain simply couldn’t handle anything more, and he’d rejected his partner’s advances. Repeatedly.

Dee had turned out to be very persistent though; Ryo had to give him that. Regardless of Ryo’s many protests, denials, and outright refusals he’d never given up, gradually eroding Ryo’s resistance, intent on making him believe they were meant to be together, and ultimately he’d succeeded. From work partners, to friends, to lovers… It had taken quite a while, but looking back at that first meeting, Ryo thought that perhaps Dee had been right and it had been inevitable all along. 

It just went to show that love could find you when you least expected it. The timing may have been less than ideal, they’d been a bit out of sync, but in the end they’d wound up on the same page and surely that was all that really mattered. They had the rest of their lives to make up for lost time.

OoOoOoO

Dee had been trying not to listen to the Chief tearing him a new one, which had been difficult considering the volume at which his boss was capable of bellowing when he chose to; either he’d been a drill sergeant in a past life or he had ambitions to become one on his retirement from the force. Nevertheless, despite the yelling, he’d practically managed to zone out, staring sightlessly at the blandly painted office wall. He’d had plenty of practice; this wasn’t the first time he’d been raked over the coals and it was unlikely to be the last. For some reason whenever there was any kind of trouble he always got the blame.

Standing there wondering how much longer he’d have to endure the totally unwarranted dressing down, he’d been inadvertently rescued from Chief Smith’s ire by the timely arrival of the squad’s new detective. He’d expected to be dismissed back to his desk while the Chief welcomed the newcomer, but instead he’d found himself lumbered with the guy.

“Meet your new partner!” the Chief had said, smugly smirking at having got one over on him, and wasn’t that the most unfair punishment the old badger could have inflicted? Stuck with showing the new child around when he already had more than enough to do.

But then he’d taken a really good look at his new partner and felt something stir inside him. Lust, probably, because damn, the dude was hot! Thick hair the color of honey, the really expensive kind, and eyes so deep and dark Dee had immediately felt himself drowning in them; he was positive there had to be some Japanese in the guy somewhere, and he quickly learned his assumption had been correct. Dee had always had kind of a thing for dark eyes. Add to that a lean but muscular physique, long legs, slim hips, and a tight little ass that made Dee’s mouth water, and Randy ‘Ryo’ Maclean was a package Dee would be only to happy to take for a test drive.

Ryo had proven to be a bit of a cold fish though; all business except when it came to the kid he took in, brushing off all of Dee’s advances, insisting he wasn’t interested. If he’d been anyone else Dee would’ve simply shrugged and moved on; plenty more fish in the sea, after all, and his new partner was the one who’d be missing out while Dee loved it up with someone else. Only it didn’t work out that way because the more time Dee spent with his partner the more whatever Ryo had sparked in him grew, until he knew he was way past simple lust. This was love, the real thing, and it wasn’t gonna go away just because Ryo was too deep in denial about his sexuality to accept what was being offered.

Dee was left bemoaning his bad luck, with only himself for company, craving what was being withheld to the point where his frustrated desire became a constant physical ache. For a long time the only action he got was what he gave himself, wearing out his left hand every night, taking the edge off without ever being completely satisfied. Fantasies were a poor substitute for the real thing, but getting his rocks off with someone who wasn’t Ryo didn’t appeal. Nobody else was gonna do it for him.

He had to believe he wasn’t wasting his life, holding out for something that would never happen. Ryo was everything he’d never known he’d been looking for, and he was damned if he’d give up and let the best thing that had ever happened to him slip through his fingers just because of a few minor setbacks.

Persistence eventually paid off, as Dee had always prayed it would in the end; Ryo had just needed time to come to terms with all the things he’d spent his whole adult life trying to avoid having to face. Denial could be a powerful force, but so could love; Mother had always said love could move mountains and Dee was inclined to believe her.

Not that everything was smooth sailing even now; they had their disagreements and misunderstandings, but so did any couple. Dee had never expected some kind of fairytale romance anyway; it would’ve bored him silly in no time. He was a man who enjoyed a challenge and his lover was certainly that. Ryo could be feisty and temperamental, stubborn as a mule, a perfectionist, and a workaholic to boot, while Dee knew himself to be erratic, impatient, lazy, and an unrepentant horndog. Hey, he never claimed to be perfect. 

Yet despite all that, it worked; maybe there was something to that whole ‘opposites attract’ thing.

It may not have been love at first sight, but it had definitely been something, and they’d both felt it even it Ryo had been too busy at the time trying to ignore any indication that he might not be as straight as he claimed. Perhaps it had simply been an unconscious realization that they were each other’s destiny. Whatever the truth was, they both knew they were right where they belonged.

The End


End file.
